The latest DC character to be reimagined (read: made totally unrecognizable) appears to be Uncle Sam. Formerly, the living embodiement of America in the form of that top hatted bloke from the famous WWII era posters, Sam (revealed in Human Bomb #1 to be the guy assembling a new team of Freedom Fighters) is now...a black guy in a suit, who seems to be a Government agent of some kind. Is it just me, or is this rather missing the point of the character?

Yeah, I always thought he was kind of similar to Captain America in that he REPRESENTED America, but didn't work for them. Maybe they're setting him up to die and be reincarnated as a more traditional Uncle Sam, or something. That's a thing he does, right? Maybe this is his new origin story.

Sam_Vimes wrote:Yeah, I always thought he was kind of similar to Captain America in that he REPRESENTED America, but didn't work for them. Maybe they're setting him up to die and be reincarnated as a more traditional Uncle Sam, or something. That's a thing he does, right? Maybe this is his new origin story.

I think you might be being just a little bit overoptimistic there, Commander...

I actually feel (probably rather irrationally) disappointed with these guys, and with James Robinson, for how easily they seem to have abandoned the Golden Age characters and histories. I thought they genuinely appreciated them, but I guess it's just about the money, after all.

At the moment, I'm not even sure if any of those guys still exist. The Ray is a particuarly confusing one: that limited series they did a few years back with a new Ray had a line indicating that he'd stolen the name from an old hero, but the new Ray now seems to have been forgotten, and since Ray Terrill reappeared it's unclear whether he is still the son of the original or not.

tony ingram wrote:At the moment, I'm not even sure if any of those guys still exist. The Ray is a particuarly confusing one: that limited series they did a few years back with a new Ray had a line indicating that he'd stolen the name from an old hero, but the new Ray now seems to have been forgotten, and since Ray Terrill reappeared it's unclear whether he is still the son of the original or not.

I don't know if any of those redone versions of the Freedom Fighters (The Ray; Phantom Lady and Doll Man; Human Bomb) that had 4-issue series between 2012 and 2013 were ever acknowledged in any comic book stories outside of those three series, were they?Did they even take place in the "New 52" universe? (I don't think the "New 52" labeling was used on any of those books, even though it was still plastered on other DC titles.)

cover dated February 2012:

cover-dated October 2012:

cover-dated February 2013:

I don't know if they were ever intended to be part of the main DC universe or not.

EXCLUSIVE: DC’s Freedom Fighters Make Their Triumphant, Nazi-Punching Return09.13.2018 by Meg Downey - in CBR ExclusivesDC’s Nazi fighting Earth-X dream team, the Freedom Fighters, are making a triumphant return in the Rebirth era with a brand new twelve issue limited series by writer Rob Venditti and artist Eddy Barrows, set to hit shelves this winter. Featuring some new takes on the familiar faces of the Freedom Fighter’s original roster: Human Bomb, Black Condor, Doll Woman and Phantom Lady Freedom Fighters #1 is set in Earth-X’s version of 2018, where the population of America has lived in fear of an oppressive Nazi regime since their ultimate victory in World War II. We sat down to speak with Venditti to get some more details about this new take on the classic DC concept, as well as get some insight into just who, and what, we might expect to see . . .

Plastic Man's only appearances with the Freedom Fighters, as far as I can recall, were in All-Star Squadron and Young All-Stars, and they were only cameos. I don't really see why he's even being mentioned.

tony ingram wrote:Plastic Man's only appearances with the Freedom Fighters, as far as I can recall, were in All-Star Squadron and Young All-Stars, and they were only cameos. I don't really see why he's even being mentioned.

Well, he was in that Convergence two-parter, which might be why some people are thinking he was in the 1970s group:

As to why he's being mentioned, there will be Nazi bad-guys who have his abilities.

from EXCLUSIVE: Eddy Barrows’ Design for Freedom Fighter’s PlaSSticMen09.13.2018 by Stephen Gerding - in CBR Exclusives . . . “Plastic Man doesn’t exist on Earth-X because he was captured by the Nazis and they extracted his DNA, his ability to shape shift,” Venditti explained to CBR. “And now they’ve used that science and applied it to an entire force of covert agents called the “PlaSStic Men”. So there’s a new SS, and they live among the American population. They can literally be anybody . . ."